No. 13 LSU needs win vs. No. 2 Georgia
LSU’s first loss of the season wasn’t devastating.
But another one this week would be.
The Tigers (5-1, 2-1 SEC) dropped from No. 5 to No. 13 in the AP poll after a 27-19 loss at then-No. 22 Florida last Saturday.
They can once again ascend the rankings by knocking off No. 2 Georgia this Saturday in Tiger Stadium, but a loss to the Bulldogs (6-0, 4-0) would force the Tigers to dramatically lower their postseason expectations.
The Tigers won’t have much of a chance against the Bulldogs unless they can approximate a 180-degree turnaround in giveaways compared to what happened at Florida.
“Obviously we made a lot of mistakes,” Tigers coach Ed Orgeron said Monday at his weekly news conference. “We felt that we beat ourselves in a lot of areas.”
Joe Burrow lost a fumble while being sacked in field-goal range, threw a pick-six with LSU down by a point and threw another interception on what wound up being the Tigers’ final offensive play, down by eight in the final minute.
“It takes 11 to protect the ball, and it starts with pass protection,” Orgeron said.
“That first sack fumble was devastating to our team. We go up 14-0, that sack fumble got their crowd back into the game. But it’s coming from Joe’s blind side. He never saw it. So that’s something that we have to avoid by the protection. Then the interception, he threw it too late. Maybe he shouldn’t have thrown it. He was trying to force it in there.”
The Tigers took the ball away just once, although it was an impact play as safety Grant Delpit made an interception in the LSU end zone.
Burrow had to operate under duress for most of the game as he was sacked five times and hurried several others.
“Their speed got us,” Orgeron said. “Sometimes (Burrow) was running for his life back there, but he should have got rid of the ball a little faster.”
LSU didn’t get any sacks, and a similar disparity in pass rush against Georgia would be devastating to the Tigers chances.
“This is the best offensive line that we have seen so far,” Orgeron said. “We’ve got our hands full. We didn’t have the sacks that we wanted. We went back and we had some pressures and we had some guys that had some good rushes, but it wasn’t good enough.”